Tax Tip: The More Obscure Medical Expenses

Are you claiming all the medical expenses you or your clients might be entitled to? 

Excerpted from EverGreen Explanatory Notes, an online reference published by The Knowledge Bureau. Permission to reprint required. Although the Income Tax Act does not specifically address the issue, it is possible for spouses to arrange to transfer accrued but unrealized capital losses between them. This strategy is advantageous where one spouse is about to realize a capital loss but has no capital gains ó either currently or in the three-year carry back period ó to offset the loss against, but where the other has such gains. This strategy is based on the following framework: Spouses are affiliated persons, under S. 251.1. Accordingly, the stop loss rules will apply when a loss is realized on the transfer of property from one spouse to another. Where the transferor and transferee are affiliated individuals, as is the case for spouses, any loss arising on the transfer of property between them is a superficial loss, as that term is defined in S. 54. A superficial loss includes a loss that is realized in circumstances where an affiliated person acquires identical property within a period that starts 30 days before the transfer and ends 30 days after the transfer. A superficial loss is deemed to be nil, by virtue of S. 40(2)(g). The attribution rules generally cause property to transfer between spouses at tax cost, so that no gain or loss arises.  It is, however, possible to elect under S. 73(1) to have the transfer between spouses accounted for at fair market value (FMV). If this election is made, the loss arising on the transfer will be realized. The loss remains a superficial loss, however. Furthermore, any income and loss (under S. 74.1(1)), and capital gain and capital loss (under S. 74.2(1)) realized on transferred property attribute back to the transferor spouse. However, if the transferee spouse paid fair market value for the property, the attribution rules will not apply, pursuant to S. 74.5. Payment can be made with cash, cash and debt, or all debt. However, if debt is used, it must bear interest at not less than the prescribed rate and such interest must be paid, in cash, no later than 30 days following each calendar year end. Taken together, these provisions give rise to the following strategy for transferring capital losses between spouses. Example: Transferring Capital Losses Between Spouses Issue: Judy holds marketable securities with an unrealized loss of $25,000. She acquired them a couple of years ago for $60,000. She has no capital gains accrued on other property, nor did she realize capital gains in the current or prior three years to use the loss against. Her husband, Steve, though, has the potential to report $100,000 in unrealized capital gains this year. Judy transfers the securities to her husband in return for a promissory note in the amount of $35,000, the fair market value of the funds. Normally, this transfer would be deemed to occur at $60,000, the adjusted cost base of the securities. However, Judy files an election under S.73(1) with her income tax return, in which she elects not to have that subsection apply. Accordingly, she accounts for the disposition at fair market value, and realizes a capital loss of $25,000. What are the tax consequences of this situation and what actions must be taken by the couple in order to optimize their tax status? Answer: The loss that Judy realizes is a superficial loss. Therefore, although Judy reports the disposition on her tax return, she adjusts the loss to nil, noting that it is a superficial loss. The cost of the shares to Judy's husband is the $35,000 he paid. The adjusted cost base of the shares, however, is $60,000, as a superficial loss is added to the cost base of the property under S. 51(1)(f). As Judy and her husband do not wish to have the attribution rules apply, the promissory note that Judy takes back is interest bearing. Judy and her husband are careful to calculate interest on the note as long as it is outstanding, and her husband pays her the interest before January 30 of the year following the year of the transfer. Her husband holds the shares for at least 30 days. He must do this, in order that the loss he will realize on their disposition not be treated as a superficial loss to him. He then sells both the shares he acquired from Judy and his property that gives rise to the capital gain. He can deduct the allowable loss on Judy's shares, $12,500, against the taxable gain on his own shares, $50,000, in computing his net income.

On October 7, the Department of Finance announced the interest rates for Canada Savings Bonds that are available for sale until November 1. The announcement included the following rate table: Canada Savings BondSeries 114 Canada Premium BondSeries 64 Interest rates for year beginning Annual interest rate Average annual rate of return if held to November 1 of the following year Annual interest rate Average annual compound rate of return if held to November 1 of the following year Nov. 1, 2008 2.00% 2.00% 2.35% 2.35% Nov. 1, 2009 TBA TBA 2.50% 2.42% Nov. 1, 2010 TBA TBA 2.65% 2.50% The rates for Series 114 will be extended to existing CSB bonds series 46-52, 54, 60, 66, 72, 78, 84, 90, 96, 102, and 108. The rates for CPB series 64 will be extended to existing CPB bonds series 3, 15, 34, and 46. In addition, the maturity dates of CSB series 51 and 54 and CPB series 3, which mature this year, have been extended to November 1, 2018. With the equity markets in melt-down mode, many investors are looking for a safer place to park their money. With the current inflation rate hovering around 3.5% and interest on Canada Savings Bonds being taxable annually on a bond-year basis, let's take a look at how a typical taxpayer with a marginal tax rate of 40% might fare by investing in one of the new Canada Premium Bonds over the next three years (where rates have been set). Example: $100,000 invested in October 2008 in Canada Premium Bonds by a taxpayer whose marginal tax rate is 40%. Inflation rate assumed to be 3.5%   Current $   Future $ Year Capital Interest Earned Value of investment Income Tax Payable Net value after tax   Net value after tax 2008 $100,000.00             2009 $100,000.00 $2,350.00 $102,350.00 $940.00 $101,410.00   $97,980.68 2010 $100,000.00 $2,558.75 $104,908.75 $1,023.50 $103,885.25   $96,977.99 2011 $100,000.00 $2,780.08 $107,688.83 $1,112.03 $106,576.80   $96,126.17 Notes: 1. Each year the taxpayer will have to pay the tax on the accrued interest (November to October) in spite of the fact that the interest has yet to be received and is therefore not available to pay the tax bill. 2. The average interest rate (stated as 2.5%) is reduced by income taxes to approximately 1.5%. 3. After 3 years, in current dollars, the $100,000 investment will have grown to $106,576.80 (after taxes). However, if inflation continues at 3.5% per year, that $106,576.80 will be worth only $96,126.17 in today's dollars. The value of the investment therefore is reduced by approximately 2% in real dollars each year.

Don't miss KB National Workshop tour with Evelyn Jacks and John Poyser   Media Passes Available: Contact The Knowledge Bureau toll free: 1-866-953-4769. Investors and taxpayers will be looking around every corner for help with debt management this year. The tax system may in fact be the best place to look for new cash flow to shore up over-leveraged assets. The Knowledge Bureau will be presenting two nationwide, day long, educational workshops to discuss issues and strategies. The first, this November highlights year end tax planning opportunities in light of the unprecedented events in the financial markets, as well as new investment opportunities. The second, in January, will overview the latest tax changes and discuss in detail, the tax consequences of personal, investment and business debt management. The dates are: November Year End Tax Planning Update - November 14 - 21 January 2009 Line by Line Tax Update and Debt Management Workshop - January 9 to 16 November Year End Tax Planning Update Nationwide Workshop Tour Dates and Venues Date City Venue Location November 14 Winnipeg The Manitoba Club 194 Broadway November 17 Toronto East Crowne Plaza Don Valley 1250 Eglington Avenue EToronto, ON M3C 1J3 November 18 Toronto West Crowne Plaza Hotel Toronto Airport 33 Carlson CourtToronto, ON M9W 6H5 November 19 Calgary Carriage House Inn 9030 Macleod Trail SouthCalgary, AB November 20 Vancouver Terminal City Club 837 West Hastings Street November 21 Edmonton Four Points by Sheraton Edmonton South 7230 Argyle Road Register Now January Tax Update and Debt Management Workshop Nationwide Workshop Tour Dates and Venues Date City Venue Location January 9 Winnipeg The Manitoba Club 194 Broadway January 12 Toronto East Crowne Plaza Don Valley 1250 Eglington Avenue EToronto, ON M3C 1J3 January 13 Toronto West Crowne Plaza Hotel Toronto Airport 33 Carlson CourtToronto, ON M9W 6H5 January 14 Calgary Carriage House Inn 9030 Macleod Trail SouthCalgary, AB January 15 Vancouver Terminal City Club 837 West Hastings Street January 16 Edmonton Four Points by Sheraton Edmonton South 7230 Argyle Road Register Now Register for both workshops by October 31 and save!

By Robert Ironside, Ph.D. Within every crisis lies opportunity and that is a subject I will address later. First, we need to understand why a problem on Wall Street is going to infect every Canadian bank and thus indirectly, every Canadian, whether they be an investor, a small business owner, employee or retiree. To understand the problem, we first need to look at a very simplified Balance Sheet of a typical bank. Balance Sheet As of October 31, 2008 Assets Liabilities Securities Retail Deposits Loans & Mortgages Money Market Borrowing Owner's Equity As you know, a Balance Sheet lists assets on the left hand side and liabilities on the right hand side. The major asset of a bank is the loans that it has made. For every dollar of loans that have been made, the bank has to obtain funding on the right hand side of the balance sheet. For large Canadian banks, the major source of funding is retail deposits. But if the bank makes more loans than it has retail deposits, it has to fund the difference from some other source. That other source is primarily money market borrowings. The money market is the market for high quality, short term debt instruments. Banks issue a variety of instruments into the money market, including negotiable certificates of deposit. These are purchased primarily by large institutional investors seeking a safe haven for short term cash surpluses. Banks participate in the money market as both borrowers and lenders. When a bank has excess funds at the end of the day, it will typically lend these out on an overnight basis through the interbank market. A bank that is short of funds overnight will borrow the money. In the US, the rate for this overnight borrowing and lending of surplus funds is referred to as the fed funds rate. On Tuesday, September 30, the posted fed funds rate was 2%, as set by the US Federal Reserve. However the actual market rate was 7%. Because the money market is an institutional market rather than a retail market and because the dollar amounts are large, money market borrowings are not covered under any form of deposit insurance. This leads to a high degree of risk aversion among money market participants. At the slightest hint of risk, money market participants quickly move their cash surpluses to a more secure investment. We now have the background to understand the current situation. Fear and uncertainty is everywhere. Banks are not comfortable lending to other banks, because they have no certainty they will be repaid. Institutional investors are scared to lend to banks because they too fear that they will not be repaid when the instruments mature, similar to the problem faced by thousands of ABCP (asset backed commercial paper) holders in Canada, who collectively hold over 30 Billion of former money market securities. Now we have to look at some data, specifically the loans to deposit ratio for the large Canadian banks. The loans to deposit ratio has been rising over the last several years. A rising ratio indicates that more of the loans made by the banks are funded in the money market, rather than from retail deposits, which tend to be "stickyî. But given the current climate of fear, banks are finding it increasingly difficult to access funds in the money market. So what does this all mean to me, the average Canadian? There are several probable outcomes. These include: 1. Funding costs are rising quickly for the Canadian banks. This will most definitely be passed along to those wanting to borrow money. Watch for interest rates to rise quickly on bank loans, especially for longer term, fixed rate money. 2. Loans will become harder to obtain. When money is cheap and easily obtained, banks will lend. When money is tight and hard to obtain, banks do not want to lend. Those with weaker credit will find it increasingly difficult to obtain credit and the cost of credit, if it can be obtained, will rise sharply. 3. The interest rate on credit cards will likely rise. For many years, banks have aggressively pushed a wide array of credit cards to an increasingly diverse group of consumers, many of whom have used the credit thus obtained to fund a lifestyle which they really can't afford. As the economy slows, credit card defaults will rise. The response from the banks will be to monitor card holders more closely and reduce available credit to those most at risk. 4. Yields on deposits will rise. If you are an investor with large cash balances, you have just become your bank's new best friend. Now is the time to aggressively negotiate better terms on your deposit funds, as the bank badly wants your money, as they know very well that retain deposits are much more "stickyî than money obtained through the money market. 5. Volatility in equity markets will remain. This problem is not going away any time soon, irrespective of the $700 Billion bailout package passed by the US Senate and Congress last week. The primary underlying cause of the problem in the US banking sector is falling US residential real estate prices. The banking sector will not really stabilize until residential real estate prices stop falling. This will likely not happen any time soon, as the real estate market is caught in a vicious downward spiral. As market prices fall, more homes become worth less than the debt against them, leading more borrowers to default, which in turn leads to more foreclosures and forced sales, pushing prices yet lower. 6. Real estate prices will fall. In the end there is something else to consider: called "Reversion to the meanî óall markets go back to their long run averages. Our P/E (price/earnings) ratios have been ranging in average of 28, and now coming down, likely to around 10. The long term average p/e ratio is about 16. If P/E ratios are falling, stock prices will not do well. We have this issue now. Historically, however, over longer holding periods, markets have provided investors with a 6.8% real rate of return (Jeremy Seagull 1802). We know that markets will always give us this real return even though we can have extended periods of much lower rates. So, if you are 20 or so, hold on and wait. If you are in debt, try to reduce discretionary spending and pay off your credit cards. Cash is king. Get safe and be prepared to weather a storm of 6 to 8 months in case you need to. There is danger is for those who are 45 plus. We don't know when things will recover. It's difficult to predict retirement income. Returns may not be good over the next few years. So the bottom line is this: Brace yourself: for tighter lending and the inevitable fallout for business, which will affect profits and returns on investment. Robert Ironside, ABD, PH. D is the author of several Knowledge Bureau certificate courses, including Financial Literacy: The Relationship Between Risk and Return. 

Gordon Pape, Publisher and Editor of The Internet Wealth Builder has this perspective (Reprinted with Permission): Prior to last week, the TSX had never experienced a one-day drop of 800+ points. Now we have had several! Those are truly staggering. Is this the end of the stock market? No, it is not the end of the stock market, unless you think that capitalism is dead. The market has gone through rough times before and has always emerged stronger than ever. Could things stay like this for a decade? Possibly - it happened in Japan, as another member points out elsewhere in this issue. But is it likely? No. Events are moving at such an accelerated pace that it is difficult to imagine the kind of stagnation envisaged by the question. That said, it would be unrealistic to expect a prolonged rebound in the markets any time soon. In the fall edition of the quarterly publication Strategy, the analysts of RBC Capital Markets write: "The experience surrounding the early 1990s U.S. real estate bust argues for a prolonged period of sub-par GDP growth rather than a quick turnaround. Countries responsible for more than 50% of global GDP, which include Canada, are in trouble and leading indicators warn that the world economy will continue to soften into the first half of 2009." During an interview on CBC Radio last week, the host asked me if there was any light at the end of the tunnel. My response: "There's light at the end of every tunnel. The real question is, how long is the tunnel?" No one knows the answer to that one. People keep asking me what they should be doing in the current circumstances. There is no simple answer. In the end, it comes down to your personal situation and your risk tolerance level. As I see it, there are four possible courses of action. Go shopping. There are lots of bargains out there. The problem is they may be even better bargains next week. Sit tight. This is the best option if you have a reasonably diversified portfolio, are holding good-quality securities, and don't expect to need access to your invested cash for a year or more. The biggest mistake that investors make is to sell great companies when they're down. That's how folks like Warren Buffett get rich - by buying the stocks you've dumped at bargain basement prices. Pare down. Another big mistake people make in tough times is to ignore their statements because they are afraid to see how badly they are performing. All that is likely to achieve is to make matters worse if the portfolio is poorly constructed. Call up your portfolio on-line this weekend if you have access to it that way. Review it very carefully. Identify the weakest holdings. Calculate your asset mix. If you decide at the end of the process that you have more stock market exposure than you want, begin selling off the weak sisters. But be strategic in your selling. Wait for days when the markets are moving up. This is especially important in the case of equity funds. Most mutual funds are valued at the end of each trading day and your advisor will have a cut-off time for accepting an order, usually 3 p.m. If you enter a sell order on a day the market is plunging, your price is likely to be lower (perhaps a lot lower) than the closing NAV the day before. The converse is true on days the market rises. So plan your selling carefully. Bail out. We are experiencing a stock market sell-off of historic proportions with no let-up in sight. The bail-out package that the U.S. Congress finally cobbled together last week appears to have impressed absolutely no one. After weekend news from Europe about widespread bank bailouts there, investors lost all sense of proportion on Monday are were selling everything in sight. High-yielding stocks and trusts have held up better than the general market but even the best of them were being hit in mid-afternoon Monday trading. Among our recommendations, Bank of Nova Scotia and Sun Life were down more than $3 at that point, Canadian Utilities was off over $2, and Enbridge and TransCanada were in the red by about $1.80. Among the trusts, Vermilion had slipped almost $4, Canadian Oil Sands was off $2, AltaGas was down $1.45, and Davis + Henderson had lost almost $1. We suggest it would be a mistake to sell these or any other quality securities in these market conditions. While it is possible that the selling frenzy could drive prices even lower, we believe that 12 months down the road anyone who sells now will regret it. - G.P. Gordon Pape is a best-selling Canadian author and speaker affiliated with The Knowledge Bureau and publisher of the Internet Wealth Builder.

An Interview With Richard Croft "We have thought for some time that the end game in the credit crunch would ultimately result in the government buying back the debt. What I find interesting about this is that the marketplace in the US is forcing the financial system to look like a system like we have in Canada. The US has always had thousands of independent banks; we have always had 6 major banks which are impenetrable. We are now seeing the emergence of "superbanks" in the US, which from a regulation viewpoint, look a lot more like the Canadian banking system, so maybe we had it right all along." Commenting about the bailout itself, Richard says this: "The underlying assets in question acquired by the US government currently have no buyers, but may still have a value. The big difference is that the government has time, banks don't, so it can take those assets and sell them off at some price in the marketplace over time. So that's the key benefit of the bailout package; it will filter the assets back into the system eventually. In the end it may not cost the taxpayer much; but we have managed to avoid a long recession, which cuts into government revenues and costs lots of money in term of unemployment insurance or deposit insurance required to be paid in the case of bank failures. So at the end of the day, the bailout will end up as a wash, and together with the tax breaks introduced with it, put more money in the hands of taxpayers." "Another interesting point, is that many large US banks can't go bankrupt nowóexamplesóJP Morgan, CitiBank, Bank of America, Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, Wells Fargo, óthey are now too big to fail." "What we are left with is an interesting balancing act between the effect of regulation on financial services and free market activity. One of the reasons why the Great Depression went on as long as it did was tightening regulation in the period. Liquidity, we have learned, is important." So the bailout was a good thing? "The bailout may bring liquidity back, which will shorten the recession, but I expect that markets won't do anything much more than find stability around the bottom. There won't be a great turn around soon. But the credit issues are also being addressed with the bailout and this is key to recovery. The longer term moral hazard is that the government is seen as the pot of gold at end of rainbow." Is this a good thing or a bad thing? "You want regulation to prevent the proliferation of the structured products that have emerged to meet investor demandóbut the flip side is less regulation allows more growthóin Canada we have always operated on regulatory regime, but we never got the same level of growth, nor the boom and bust scenario the Americans have scene. If you want a scorecard, look at currency. The fact that the Canadian dollar rolled down to 64 cents, measures and gauges merits of a capitalist economy. We are now seeing a downside of a lower regulation environment but more regulation may not allow needed growth. " There is so much yin and yangónobody really knows what the immediate future will hold, so what's an investor to do?. "That's true, so the best defence is a diversified portfolio. Decisions made at this moment should be made on whether you can tolerate the risk level of the portfolio you are in." "If investors are comfortable with risk in the portfolio, some may raise it. There are great buys to be had. Warren Buffet boughtósome investors might also wish to step up to the plate and take a look at great companies undervalued now. " So the bottom line? "The bottom line is that investors holding portfolios came through this kind of cycle did better than those who did not have one. Many had only a 3-4% downsideówhich is not so painful at all. A well balanced portfolio is what you need to work with to weather these kinds of storms." Richard Croft is an investment counselor / portfolio manager, and principle of R. N. Croft Financial Group Inc. Richard will also be speaking at the Distinguished Advisor Conference in Monterey, California next month on the subject of portfolio construction with new tax efficient investing tools.